Well, I'm finally done.

I got too busy to work on the afghan, and then wasn't done in time!!! I crocheted my little fingers off in the week before I was to gift it. Even got some extra rows done on the road.

But all came out well. I gave the completed afghan (pictured) to my sister over Thanksgiving, as we exchanged Christmas gifts at that time.

As you can see, I think she enjoyed it very much. I think the colors will work well with her new paint scheme. It may even get cold enough in North Carolina for her to use it! Believe it or not, I think I brought cold weather to NC with me - it was in the 40's. I had to use one of her old afghans - wish I could have unwrapped mine and used it. hehe.

But the work continues. I have one scarf almost done, and some wild dreams of doing a second one by xmas (yah, right). Maybe I'll just try to work on a doily snowflake instead. I'll have to start work in July in order to make next Christmas. :)

- J

Hey everyone. I got a few folks asking about the pattern for the 'wavy' afghan. I usually post patterns with my pics, but the book was at the office. This is a pattern from "300 Crochet Stitches" - one of the harmony guides. It's a basic ripple variant - not sure how copyrighted such things are if they appear in dozens of books. :) This one happens to be called "Ridged Chrveron Stitch (pp30). It's a basic ripple, 3 up, inc2, 3 down, dec2. Done in the back loops to give it a bit of texture.

I'm 1/4 - 1/3 done - hopefully I'll actually finish it in time. :-)

- J

Next afghan

Here's the next big project. Big being large in size. And next being the latest one started, aside from the other three I'm in the middle of. :)

This is for my Sister. I haven't made her anything yet, and she has a new home, so I figured it was time. Plus, I liked the ripple pattern I used for the charity afghan, so I thought I'd use it again. (I so that a lot :-) Hey, maybe the pattern will make its way into a scarf.

Anyways, she's got gold and burgandy in her room, and grey goes with everything. Plus with even and off rows, there's a 'yellow heavy' and a 'yellow light' side, so it's kind of reversible. Not too bad.

I think she'll enjoy it. We'll see in a few months.

Charity Sampler

Just wanted to give everyone a sample of the blankets donated. It's a small image, butyou get the idea. You can see my wavy afghan in the center. The mint green forward on the left is also one of my baby blankets.

First Charity stitch

Well, may as well start the blog with my latest work. OK, it was finished int he Spring, but what can you do.

We have a S&B at work (Stitch and Bitch - although at work we have to call it the politically correct Stitch Club). We decided to do something for charity. I took the lead, and chose Project Linus (www.projectlinus.org) as our first recipient. Eventually we donated 23 blankets. I submitted 4. 3 were basic baby blankets - 2 verigated baby yarn, and 1 mint yarn. I wante dto make at least one full size blanket, so I picked a generic wave ripple. The colors, while dictated by a yarn donation, went very well together.

The blankets have been donated, and have already made their way to those in need.

It all begins...

Hey Everyone,

My web pages being a pain to update, I'm moving my craft stuff to this blog. Here's the into from my web pages. I'll post my works as I create them. :)

- J
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As if I didn't have enough bizarre hobbies, I also crochet - and now knit.

I'm just a creative kind of guy. String art. Photography. Building models. So when I saw the "teach yourself to crochet" book in the store, what could I do. Besides, I had a coupon.

But it was not out of the blue. Mom crocheted a lot. She was the afghan maker as we grew up. So I was at the crochet store so I could look for yarn colors for a new afghan. On my bed is a red, white and blue one that I've had since I was a wee McLachlan, so I figured it was time for something different. So while in the store I saw the book, and well, I got hooked. Get it. I got hooked. never mind. I've since taught myself to knit as well (with the help of an informal class). There are some things you just can't crochet. But we'll see where the knitting takes me.

So I'm well on the way for something else to suck away all my time. At least this is one of my cheaper hobbies. :)